Tuesday night’s game was going to be a true test for the Los Angeles Clippers to see if the team can compete against the Western Conference’s elite teams. Even without Tony Parker, the San Antonio Spurs still managed to pull out a victory on the Clippers’ home court. Los Angeles fell by a score of 113-103 giving up a ridiculous 25 points to San Antonio’s Patty Mills. Blake Griffin again had a monster night recording 35 points and 12 rebounds despite the loss.

Los Angeles played pretty well as a whole, but it simply wasn’t enough to take down the Spurs. This brings serious questions to mind if the Clippers can actually compete for a championship this season. The answer to these questions today would be absolutely not. Griffin has been playing the best basketball of his career, but the supporting cast hasn’t done too much to help all year.

When the team traded for Jared Dudley, they had high expectations. Dudley is a great role player by all means, but he has failed to meet Los Angeles’ expectations. At this point in the season he is the team’s most expendable player to trade at the deadline on Thursday. What the Clippers really need is a backup big man to give the team quality minutes when both Griffin and DeAndre Jordan are not on the court. The Clippers have been forced to go small when this is the case because there are basically just no other options.

This has been a major issue this season as players such as Byron Mullens, Antawn Jamison and Hedo Turkoglu just aren’t cutting it. Therefore, if the Clippers fail to make a trade at the NBA trade deadline, the team is doomed this season. The ultimate goal when bringing in J.J. Redick and Jared Dudley was to compete immediately. Unfortunately for the Clippers, they fall into the category of “Needs One More Piece.”

Joseph Crevier covers the Los Angeles Lakers for RantSports.com Follow him on Twitter, @RealJoeCrev, and Facebook or add him to your network on Google.